On New Year's Eve
by Long-Vuong
Summary: On that special day before the new year, Ludwig goes home thinking he'll have a night of peace and quiet. However, a hysterical call, a stubborn stalker and one very special suprise party may change his plans for New Year's Eve. AU, human names used. Could be interpreted as GerIta at the end.
1. Chapter 1

The office clock chimed, signaling the end of the workday. Everyone around Ludwig stood up, stretched, and immediately started talking about what they were doing on New Year's Eve.

"I'm going to a party!"

"I'm throwing a celebration!"

"I'm traveling out of town."

"What are you doing for New Year's, Ludwig?" All eyes turned to him. Awkwardly, Ludwig coughed and said, "I actually don't have any plans for New Year's Eve."

A few of his co-workers gave him a pitying look, but the rest weren't surprised. All of them knew that Ludwig was new in town and didn't have many friends, so he was rarely, if ever, invited to parties.

As everyone rushed out of the office, an employee ducked inside the bathroom and made a call. "The eagle is out of the nest. I repeat, the eagle is out of the nest… What? You're confused?"

Annoyed, he huffed, "Don't you know what a codename is? What? No? Fine. Okay, what I meant to say was Ludwig has left the office."

Hastily, the employee tucked his phone into his pocket and exited the office. The streets were teeming with people, and a long line of traffic stretched as far as the eye could see.

"Alfred-san!" called someone from in the crowd. "Over here, Alfred-san!"

Alfred turned and almost immediately saw his friend Kiku Honda, who worked at a nearby business. The two of them started talking about what they were doing for New Year's Eve.

"What are you doing for the New Year, Alfred-san?" asked Kiku politely.

"Well, I'm going to help Feliciano with a surprise—" A bit too late, Alfred stopped himself.

Kiku looked somewhat curious. "A surprise what? I do not want to pry, but it sounds interesting."

"Well…" Alfred lowered his voice. "You know Ludwig from Apartment 167? Feliciano wants to throw him a surprise party on New Year's Eve, because he basically never goes out to enjoy himself. Heck, I doubt he has any friends except for Feli. I'm supposed to tell Feli where Ludwig is so that he can distract him from coming home if the party's not ready yet."

"It all sounds very interesting," said Kiku. "Is there any way I can help you?"

"Huh. Lemme think…" He trailed off. "I know! Can you call up a bunch of people to come to the party? It's not gonna be fun with only a few people."

"Alright. Are you sure you want a lot of people?" Kiku asked.

"Yeah, it's fine. The more the merrier!" Alfred smiled brightly and headed towards his car. "See you at the party!"

"See you at the party, Alfred-san." Immediately, Kiku took out his phone. "Hello, is this the Kirkland residence? Yes. I was wondering if you have plans for New Year's Eve…"

* * *

**I forgot to write a Christmas Fanfic. So, I ended up doing a New Year's one.**

**I've always toyed with the idea of Feliciano throwing Ludwig some sort of suprise party for a while, so I was overjoyed at finally being able to use my idea.**

**- Long-Vuong**


	2. Chapter 2

Ludwig was getting a creepy feeling. Someone was trailing him. He was almost absolutely sure that had shaken the guy off, but he soon found out that his stalker was extremely stubborn.

He had first noticed it a few minutes after driving away from work. A Honda Civic with a garish paint job was following his VW, always keeping a far enough distance from him so that he couldn't get a good look at the driver's face.

When he was nearing the exit near his neighborhood, the Civic's driver made what appeared to be a phone call. Oddly enough, a minute later his own phone was ringing. "Hello?" he answered cautiously.

"Ludwig! Ludwig! It's an emergency!" Startled, Ludwig dropped the phone and clumsily picked it up again. "What?! What is it, Feliciano?!" he said, worried.

"It's terrible! Terrible!" Feliciano sounded hysterical. "We've run out of pasta, and Lovino's not around to get any! Please, please could you go to the store and get some?"

Ludwig breathed a sigh of relief. He'd expected a disaster, but with the Vargas brothers you could never tell. "Sure, I'll go and get some pasta. How much do you need?"

"Ah, seven boxes, I think!"

"Okay. I'll bring it up to your apartment later." Sighing, Ludwig put the cell down and made a U-turn.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the Civic turn to follow him as if it had known what would happen. Feeling a bit more apprehensive now, Ludwig stepped on the gas all the way to the supermarket.

The store's parking lot was surprisingly full. Ludwig had to park a long way away from the entrance. In doing so, he noticed that the Civic was nowhere to be seen.

As he got out of the car and started towards the store, he heard faint footsteps behind him. Turning around, he saw nothing.

Walking a few steps forwards, Ludwig heard louder footsteps and again turned around. Nothing. Shivering slightly, he continued walking towards the store.

This pattern persisted all the way until Ludwig got all the way to the pasta and grains aisle. Taking down a few boxes of Barilla*spaghetti, he had a sudden thought. _Why don't I outsmart this stalker? If it's a game he or she wants, then it's game they'll get._

After filling his cart with boxes of pasta, Ludwig started towards the check-out lanes but suddenly veered in a completely different direction. Then, in the middle of the canned goods aisle he turned back and headed towards the fresh vegetables and fruits section. After the fruits section he headed to the dairy aisles, then doubled back to arrive in the canned goods again. Finally he took a big zigzagging path around the bakery, deli meats and household appliances sections, stopping at the pet aisle for a few minutes. Heading towards the check-out, Ludwig was confident that he had lost his pursuer.

Then he heard the footsteps again. Anger and frustration rising, Ludwig started to curse but thought better of it and kept quiet. Maybe if he ignored the footsteps, they would go away.

The footsteps did stop, but another problem started. Turning around, Ludwig saw Alfred Jones, who he'd often seen at work.

"Hey Ludwig!" said the teen cheerfully—actually, _too_ cheerfully. "What a coincidence! It's amazing that you actually do stuff outside of the office—I mean, it's nice to see you outside of the office."

Everything about that kid was suspicious, even the items in his cart. Pasta, two cans of beans, onions, apples, milk, bread, deli meat, light bulbs, and cat food. Ludwig remembered that he'd been through all of the aisles where those items were…

_No! Stop it, you're going paranoid_. Ludwig shook his head a bit and put on what he hoped was a smile. "It's nice to see you too, Jones."

Alfred looked extremely nervous. "Yeah. So, uh, what are you doing for the New Year?"

The two stood in awkward silence, already knowing what Ludwig was going to say.

"Next," said the cashier rudely, looking rather impatient. Ludwig gathered up the pasta and quickly headed out the door without as much as a goodbye.

As the cashier rang up his items, Alfred took out his phone and called Feliciano. "Mission accomplished," he said triumphantly.

"Wonderful, _vee_~" Feliciano sounded cheerful. "I think the last guest's arrived, so you can go ahead and came back."

"Sounds like a plan! I'll be there in about fifteen minutes." Alfred closed his phone and picked up the plastic grocery bags. This was going to be the best surprise party ever.

* * *

**Take a look at the items in Alfred's cart. If you spotted the obvious relationship between the items and the aisles on the first time you read it through, then you get an (imaginary) cookie!**

**Apparently, the 2012 Honda Civic was one of the most popular cars in America this year, so I gave Alfred a Civic.**

**- Long-Vuong**


	3. Chapter 3

Ludwig realized how late it was when he exited the supermarket. It had been sunset when he entered, but now it was completely dark. He had wasted nearly an hour randomly running around aisles! Sighing, he got into his car and drove to the apartment building which he currently called home.

After he had parked and gotten out of the car, Ludwig suddenly noticed a garishly colored Honda Civic parked not too far away. More than a little nervous, he quickly grabbed the boxes of pasta and made a dash for the door.

Inside, the building was warm and bright. Noisy, raucous laughter could be heard from most of the rooms. Ludwig thought about the quiet evening that awaited him and wondered if he should have gone to his troublesome brother's party…

Approaching room 161, the Vargas's apartment, Ludwig knocked on the door and waited. And waited. And waited. He even rang the doorbell a couple of times, but to no result.

After about five minutes, Ludwig turned the doorknob, expecting it to be locked. To his surprise, it wasn't and he nearly pitched head first into the darkened room. Awkwardly, he managed to right himself without spilling the boxes of pasta all over the floor. He squinted into the darkness, hoping he hadn't woken one of the Vargas brothers.

Suddenly a light flicked on, and Ludwig was temporarily blinded. "Surprise!" yelled an enormous bunch of people somehow crammed into the Vargas' tiny apartment.

"What?" Everybody from work, a few of his friends, and even a couple of people he didn't know came up to wish him a happy New Year. "_Vee_~ Happy New Year's Eve, Ludwig!" said Feliciano, coming out of the crowd of people.

"What is this…? How did you…?" Ludwig was still speechless. "Isn't this wonderful, Ludwig?" said Feliciano, basking in the warmth and cheer of the crowd. "You never have time to have any fun. So, I planned you a surprise New Year's Eve party, _vee_~. So come on, go out and enjoy yourself tonight!"

Somewhat knocked off balance by his friend's proclamation, Ludwig stopped for a moment. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't talked to any of his friends in a while. He had barely spoken to the other employees at work, and he hadn't gone out to dinner, or a movie, or much of anything in months.

He really _did_ need a day to relax.

"So what do you say we get a slice of cake or something, _vee_~? It's a party, and at a party you have to have fun!" said Feliciano, bright and eager with happiness.

"Alright… I guess so. It's been a long time since I've had any time to have fun, so… lead the way," he said slowly.

As Ludwig followed Feliciano through the crowd of people, he smiled. It was only a tiny little smile, but… He smiled. It was time that he actually enjoyed himself for once.

_Aftermath_

After the ball dropped and "Auld Lang Syne" had been sung more than once, the party guests put on their coats and hats and began saying their goodbyes as they went out the door.

Just as the last few guests were filing out, an announcement came on. "_Will the owner of the garish red 2012 Honda Civic move his or her car? It is blocking the fire escape. I repeat, will the owner of the red 2012 Honda Civic move his or her car…_"

Alfred grinned sheepishly. "Whoops! Better go move it," he said, picking up his coat.

Ludwig suddenly realized that Alfred had been the one tailing him all along. Normally, it would've bothered him, but tonight he was just going to let it go.

After all, it was the new year, wasn't it?

* * *

**There are a lot of things that I would have liked to put into this story that ended up not making the final cut. Originally, I had wanted to write more details about the guests and the party and how Kiku played a role in the party planning, but I realized that I had neither the time to write it orthe place to put it (If I had inserted it, this chapter would have been unnecesarily long).**

**Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the story. Happy New Year, everybody.**

**- Long-Vuong**


End file.
